Labour leadership hopeful Owen Smith is just borrowing policies that Jeremy Corbyn has already pledged to bring into effect, according to the party leader’s campaign team.

The team has, apparently sarcastically, lauded the adoption by Owen Smith of a number of the current leader’s policies in recent days.

Their comments came after Smith used a speech at the former mining village of Orgreave, South Yorkshire, to call for the reinstatement of a Ministry of Labour – a policy which Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell articulated during the EU referendum.

A spokesman for the ‘Jeremy for Labour’ campaign told the Guardian on Wednesday that the campaign welcomed Smith’s “focus on equality of outcome, re-industrialisation, and workers’ rights,” as well as his “support for policies announced in recent months by Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell.”